 The
Background to the Project
The
Proposal: Analysis of the Historic Presence of Several Religions in Europe
and the Need for Inter-religious Knowledge as Represented by European School
Textbooks
The
Tool: Text Book Research
Anticipated
Results of the Project |
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The
Background to the Project
It has long been recognised,
that education is a vital tool to prepare students for a future as responsible
citizens in the multi-facetted societies in the framework of a multi-cultural
European Union.
The past and future role
of the different religions in the development of “Europe” is still under
debate. From a secular point of view, there are tendencies to exclude religion
from the European forum, thus ignoring the on-going positive and negative
influence religions have on individuals and excluding the potential benefit
organised religion has for civil society. On the other hand, for example
in some sections of the Roman-Catholic and Orthodox Churches, members of
the Church leadership would like to revive a common Christian heritage,
thus ignoring the historic presence of the Jewish and Muslim faiths on
European soil and verbally excluding European citizens of those faiths
from being true Europeans.
But members of the different
European faiths have also recognised the need to work equally with members
of other faiths, non-religious NGOs and governments towards a kind of citizenship
able to communicate with different cultural traditions. From our perspective,
this does include both knowledge of the religious traditions and of history.
The perception of European inter-faith history should not be dominated
by catchwords like “crusade”, “reconquista”, “ethnic cleansing” or “fundamentalism”
which provide a “them vs. us”-perspective. Students and future citizens
are to be equipped both with the historical knowledge and the conclusions
necessary for tackling new challenges by acknowledging how much they owe
to the many strands of European tradition.
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The
Proposal: Analysis of the Historic Presence of Several Religions in Europe
and the Need for Inter-religious Knowledge as Represented by European School
Textbooks
The Peace Education Standing
Commission proposes a European school textbook research project addressing
the representation of the historic presence of several world religions
in Europe and the need for inter-religious knowledge. The examples of Spain,
Sicily and South East Europe show that the numerically, culturally or politically
dominant religion would not always be Christianity. Although there have
been “clashes of civilisations” there has also been a profound Jewish and
Muslim influence on Europe. With regard to the Islamist threat perceived
by many in the European public, the focus should be on the improvement
of the perception of the historic presence of Islam in Europe as well as
a renewed perception that religious and cultural diversity might also be
seen as an asset for Europe’s future in a globalised world.
The Peace Education Standing
Commission would be in a position to spark research projects in several
European countries, to influence curricula and school text books in different
European countries towards a more common recognition of Europe's inter-faith
heritage.
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The
Tool: Text Book Research
In the past decades, the
presentation of religions has become the subject of several major research
projects. From 1979 to 1988 Professors Dr Adoldjavad Falaturi and Dr Udo
Tworuschka of Cologne University organised a research project on the representation
of Islam in German textbooks involving some 50 scholars and provoking similar
studies in several European countries. This research project is now complemented
by research into the representation of Christianity in countries with an
Islamic tradition (1999-2002) organised by Professors Dr Johannes Laehnemann
and Dr Klaus Hock at the universities of Erlangen-Nuremberg and Rostock
in contact with the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research
Braunschweig. The project is actively involved in dialogue with scholars
and institutions in Turkey and also covers Egypt with contacts to Iran
and Jordan now being established. Thus it is continually developing both
scientific tools for textbook research as well as strategies in inter-cultural
and inter-religious dialogue in the development of curricula and text books.
It is obvious that there
is a minority-majority perspective in it, implicitly accepting that Christianity
would be the predominant original religion in Germany and Islam would be
the undisputed majority religion in the Middle East. It must be most interesting
to complement those two projects by studies looking into the Muslim-Christian
history of Europe as a common history, with both Christianity and Islam
and also the Jewish Faith contributing to the heritage of Europe. Scientific
guidance would be secured by the scholars involved in the steering committee
and advisory council of the Peace Education Standing Commission. In the
context of the preparation of this proposal, experts from outside the committees
have also expressed interest in advising the project (Bosnia, Italy). Preliminary
results of on-going research will be presented on several occasions including
the upcoming Nuremberg Forum.
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Anticipated
Results of the Project
The
general aim of the proposed project is to spark research projects in several
European countries in order to influence curricula and school text books
in different European countries towards a more common recognition of Europe
inter-faith heritage. The scientific study of school textbooks and curricula
has historically served three main purposes:
(1)
practical improvement of existing textbooks and curricula
(2)
study of the general views permeating a society
(3)
study of the role of textbooks within the actual process in the class room
These
aspects are present in any textbook research. While publications originating
from the proposed project would certainly concentrate on the first two
aspects, one should not underestimate the influence of the third aspect
when preliminary results of the studies are discussed with teachers.
(4)
Joint text book research also served as a bilateral confidence building
measure where political relations were strained. Two prime examples of
good practice would be joint projects between scholars of Germany and Israel
and between scholars of Germany and Poland. Given the historic clashes
and guilt in the relations between Germany and those countries, it is easy
to see that this experience might serve as a model for building mutual
knowledge and acceptance in South East Europe like Bosnia, Kosovo and Bulgaria
with its tensions between the Christian and Muslim communities.
As
the experience of the current project on the representation of Christianity
in the textbooks of Muslim countries shows the benefit of such a project
is not only in the final publication but already in the process of contacting
potential partners in the respective countries, in raising awareness for
the issue and in influencing opinion building. The same can be expected
from the proposed project on the historic presence of several religions
in Europe and the need for inter-religious knowledge. It ought to have
an impact both on the actual development of school books and curricula
as well as the scientific and political fields. |
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